When I went to see a physical therapist a couple of years ago, he said I had the worst TMJ he had ever seen.

About ten years ago, my dentist prescribed a nightguard, which cost me about $300 and did nothing to relieve my aching jew. Perhaps it made it worse? On the positive side, it has saved wear and tear on my teeth enamel. When I don’t wear, my dentist can tell by the damage.

Martin: “After I had been in my Alexander training, I realized that many of my patients were suffering from harmful muscular holdings in the head, neck and back. If I would’ve just been keen enough to observe these people as they walked to the chair and sat in the chair, I might’ve been able to help them with their pain.”

“My understanding of pain of the head, neck and back is as Dr. Janet Travell, President Kennedy’s personal physician, said that pain in the head, neck and back is 90% muscular holding patterns. I believe that to be an understatement.”

“There’s a growing trend among dentists to recognize that movements in the lower jaw are not something that happens in a bone to bone movement but that these movements are controlled by muscles.”

“The solution is to release these muscular holding patterns. By freeing the head and neck, there can be benefits throughout the body in balance and coordination.”

“Movement of the lower jaw is guided by muscles rather than by bones and joints.”

Robert Rickover: “There seems to be a law of human movement that when your idea of how something operates matches physical reality, the movement is going to be smoother than if your concept differs from reality. Your saying find out what reality is and use that as your guide to movement.”

Martin: “How we think about movement influences our movement.”

“Try clenching your teeth and see how that affects your breathing. By comparison, say the word ‘Boston’ slowly and then check in with your breath.

“The word introduces movement into your lower jaw. It gives you a rough approximation of the physiologic rest position of the lower mandible.

“All the muscles that open and close your lower jaw are in balance and are at their most ready for movement. They’re balanced. There’s the least amount of chemical activity in those muscles to maintain tonus.

“In this physiologic rest position, your lips will come lightly together and your teeth will be apart. Any time your teeth are touching during the course of the day, there’s a good chance that that is a dysfunctional or pathological position for you. You’re going to do some harm to yourself.

“Somebody suffering from muscular tension should monitor the space between their teeth and give themselves permission to allow the lower jaw to give in to gravity, to sense the gravitational pull on the lower jaw, it’s a heavy piece of bone, but don’t give in a millimeter more than is necessary.

“Most joints in the body, gravity will settle them unless you have upright reflexes occur. That’s why you are shorter at the end of the day.”

“Recognize the gravitational pull on your lower jaw. You don’t need to hold it up. You don’t need to have it over-close. If you can sense your physiologic rest position, your overall well-being will improve.”

Robert: “An interesting experiment would be to see how little work you can do to open your mouth.”

Martin: “If I’m driving in traffic, I’ll often catch myself and ask, why am I holding my jaw like this? There’s plenty of stimulus involved in driving and if you can pause and allow your jaw to be free. Not a hectoring instruction to yourself. Just a wish. Just a mere thought. Wouldn’t it be nice if my jaw muscles were not tense? You’ll see some major effects, including how you hold your head.”

Robert: “What about the various devices dentists prescribe with TMJ?”

Martin: “Typically dentists will prescribe mouth guards. You can buy them in the drug store. Those mouth guards, when you close up into them, most people with TMJ, have an eccentric chewing pattern. There’s tightness and holding that makes the jaw close in a way that causes this pain.

“When you bite into this appliances, you’re just replicating the dysfunction. Most people will wind up worse off. I would recommend seeking a neuro-muscularly trained dentist. Let him track the movements of your jaw so your mouthguard is made at the physiologic rest position.

“There’s an inter-oral orthodic, a mouthguard made in this fashion. There was a dentist in Halifax who had a lobster fisherman come into his office. This fisherman had terrible headaches. The dentist made him an orthodic that allowed his muscles to come into equilibrium.

“He had him back a week later. The guy said, my headaches are gone but more amazingly, I was out on my boat and I could pull up the pots and lift them in a way I couldn’t do in 20 years.”

“By balancing the musculature in the head and neck, he allowed the head to come to equilibrium. This dentist developed a pure performance mouthguard.”

“Try clenching your jaw and then turn your head to the side. Now face forward again. Say ‘Boston.’ Let your jaw have space between the teeth. Now make that same movement. You’ll notice increased flexibility and ease. You can’t have a free jaw without a free neck and vice versa.”

“One of the pioneers who gave scientific verification to the Alexander Technique was Frank Pierce Jones who called the Atlanto-occipital joint the prime distribution point for bodily stress. If you can intervene at that point to introduce ease and to let go of muscular contraction in that area, then the net pulling the rest of you inward and tighter is loosened.”

Mr. Gillis is among a small but growing number of athletes wearing what manufacturers like to call “performance mouthpieces” while cycling, running or weight training. One of the newest tools in a performance-enhancement arsenal, these mouthpieces are light, flexible pieces of molded plastic that fit over the teeth — and are only vaguely reminiscent of that retainer from junior high school or the bulky mouth guards worn by football players.

In my experience, Modern Orthodox Jews have more concern about ethics than other types of Orthodox Jews. They are more concerned about appearances. They are more concerned about the goyim.

I’m not arguing that Modern Orthodox Jews are better Jews than the traditional Orthodox. I’m not arguing that they are finer and kinder. I am arguing that they have different concerns and these concerns lead them to put more stress on ethics.

I think this comes from their wider participation in life. Modern Orthodox Jews are more concerned with the way non-Jews and non-Orthodox Jews look at Orthodox Jews. As opposed to the more traditional Orthodox, the Modern Orthodox live in the world. They work as doctors and lawyers and professors and accountants.

The traditional Orthodox rarely go to college and consequently rarely enter the professions. All of the professions have ethics codes. Generic businessmen, by contrast, choose their own code. You can’t point to a generic businessman and ask to see his ethics code.

Traditional Orthodox Jews go into business while the Modern Orthodox go into professions.

In traditional Orthodox shuls, I’ve found there’s much more clannishness. The world can go to hell. I’m looking out for my group.

“You probably felt something there. The feeling wasn’t there at some time, it intensified, and it started to fade. All without any actual standing.”

Robert: “I felt some tension in my neck and my legs. That’s an exercise I use with students too. Get them to do everything that’s involved in an activity except the activity itself.”

Bob: “You get to the verge. You have that intensity. It’s not there and then it’s really there. Then it starts to fade.

“I bring in some choice when I tell them it’s OK to stand up the next time but I want you to pick the moment when the intensity starts to fade to start to move. Normally you would stand up immediately when that tension starts to rise. We’re going to let it rise through its cycle, start to drop, and then to stand up then.

“That exercise starts a dialogue with the student about what it means to move when you get a stimulus. Then you can start to play with what it feels like in your process to move.”

Alexander teacher Robert Rickover says: “Many times with new students, I suggest that if they want to see examples of the kind of use that Alexander Technique promotes, to take a look at someone like Fred Astaire. While he did not have Alexander lessons, he exemplifies what we are about.

“I tell people, turn off the volume and just watch him move. Just watch him walk or stand or sit.

“Of course he’s breathing, but there’s never a big deal about it. The air is just coming in and out. And that’s connected with the ease of his more obvious movements.

“You don’t need to look at the spectacular dance scenes. Just look at ordinary things. He’s talking to someone. He’s getting up from a couch. If you watch him carefully, you can do it in slow motion, you will see an incredible ease of movement. If you look at his breathing, you will hardly see anything because it is so subdued. There’s no extra effort involved.”

Luke Ford writes: I’ve been asking Orthodox rabbis about Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky’s two blog posts (here and here) announcing why he did not say the traditional morning blessing thanking God for not making him a woman.

A friend tells me: “Fact is, that blessing has been in dispute from the beginning, and many important poskim, and whole communities, say “sheasani yisrael” (for making me a Jew).

“Also, the gemora has another potential blessing, “shelo asani am haaretz” (for not making me ignorant) and that was unpopular and disappeared from the texts.”

One rabbi said to me: “The sad thing is the shul won’t fire him. What about the blessing thanking God for not making him a Gentile (she loasani goy) – how can the rabbi be racist?”

“He should really get rid of mussaf as well – the treatment of animals in biblical doctrine does not stand up to the “smell test” of modern sensibilities.

“In fact he should not allow the reading of Parshat Zachor for it is racist, or any place in the Torah which speaks of Israel’s choseness or specialness – these are primitive ancient perspectives. He should edit the Torah, teachings and ritual to confirm to modern sensibilities – of course none of this should be done in an orthodox shul – which is why he should be fired."

According to Wikipedia: “Clonidine is a sympatholytic medication used to treat medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, ADHD and anxiety/panic disorder.”

According to Wikipedia: “Clonazepam is a benzodiazepine drug having anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant, and anxiolytic properties. …Clonazepam is also used for the treatment of panic disorder.”

Since I started blogging for a living in 1997, I’ve had a largely solitary life during the week so on Shabbat I often get high on socializing and end up acting and speaking inappropriately because I feel so giddy about the opportunity to mix, particularly with young women.

On his radio show today, Dennis Prager said: “Michelle Bachmann is better and better each day, which is a big deal. It means a lot of things, including intelligence. It’s hard for a mediocre mind to adapt. It takes a facile mind to adapt. This is my new challenge. I will rise to it. It means she has a clear mind. She’s somebody to watch.”

“In tennis, you have to get the ball over the net. In politics, you have to inspire people to support you.”

“Rick Perry presented a grand vision for America. I found the delivery stilted. Michelle Bachmann has a fluent presentation of herself.”

“There are three great problems with Mitt Romney. One. He has changed his positions on a number of fundamental matters. Two. What is his grand vision? Third. Romneycare. I will go to my grave why Mitt Romney did not say, I tried it. It failed. Nobody knows better than I that government intervention in healthcare is a catastrophe. But he never says that.”

“The pupil can say, ahh, I know I’m really holding myself, I’m gripping my jaw, I’m tightening my neck as a way of not feeling anxious or sad. I might bite my upper lip to not cry. I might tighten my breathing to not feel alarmed. I may hold my shoulders hunched and compressed as a way of not feeling my own anger. Alexander Technique makes a direct link between emotions and physical manifestations of emotion.”

Have you ever tried to control how much sex to have or how often you would see someone? Do you find yourself unable to stop seeing a specific person even though you know that seeing this person is destructive to you? Do you feel that you don’t want anyone to know about your sexual or romantic activities? Do you get “high” from sex and/or romance? Have you had sex at inappropriate times, in inappropriate places, and/or with inappropriate people? Do you make promises to yourself concerning your sexual or romantic behavior that you find you cannot follow? Have you had or do you have sex with someone you don’t (didn’t) want to have sex with? Do you believe that sex and/or a relationship will make your life bearable? Have you ever felt that you had to have sex? Do you believe that someone can “fix” you?

For the first lesson, if you are in pain then I would work with you on the table. All the ideas of Alexander can be put into practice while the back is supported by the table. We work on freeing the joints of the body, inhibiting habitual responses, understanding directions, encouraging the spine to lengthen and generally allowing an expansion of energy. You will be encouraged to practise this at home each day.

If we work on standing and sitting in the first lesson then the main thing to start with is how do you move? What is your awareness of your body? When you sit down do you pull your head back? When you stand up do you use your hands to lift you up? If you “sit up straight” for some time is this tiring? A lot of people have Alexander lessons because of poor posture. We work on strengthening the back through releasing excess tension and bringing back a spring-like quality, then posture improves. When the primary control is working well standing up and sitting down is effortless.

Robert: “He was speaking in large halls where there was no PA system and often these halls were filled with rowdy tin miners. He wanted to project his voice to the back of the hall and in attempting to do that, he exaggerated some patterns he had in the rest of his life and this caused his hoarseness.”

Tom: “When there’s some rigorous activity we do, the habit becomes more pronounced. More exacerbated but it is probably going on all the time.”

Robert: “What Alexander noticed about himself in the context of being a reciter is applicable to all of us in our everyday activities.”

Tom: “Alexander discovered a way that was helpful not only for breathing but for everything we do. He figured out a way to [stop doing things that get in our way] — inhibition. It’s a neuro-muscular term (not a Freudian term) where you can say to yourself, I’m not going to do the thing that harms me. I’m going to choose something that is better for me.”

“He did that. He went back out on stage. He felt hoarseness and lost his voice again. He decided that it must be something that he’s doing when he’s on stage performing that’s creating a loss of voice. He set up mirrors, a tryptych of mirrors. If you ever go to a taylor, you can look in one mirror and see all around you.

“He noticed that when he began to speak, he was shortening his neck and pulling his head back and down on to his neck, tightening in his throat, bracing in his ribs, shortening his spine, pulling his legs and arms into his torso. In short, he was compressing and constricting himself.”

I used to pick berries when I was a kid. I remember picking blackberries at Pacific Union College from age 11 on.

Kids are good at picking berries. They’ve got the little fingers adept at reaching into vines and brambles and making dainty little picks.

I don’t think we need government intervention to make this illegal. If a parent puts his seven-year-old kid out to work picking berries, that is the choice of the parent.

Who should raise kids? Parents or the government? The left wants you to have as little to do with the raising of your kids as possible. The left does not even want you to make your kids lunch because you might put in unhealthy foods.

Dennis: As soon as you hear the word “hopeless”, you know you’ve entered the planet of leftism. What hope do they not have? They have hope to have room and board. They’re not living on the street. They’re not starving.

The left’s view is that you can explain everything by economics. My view is that you can explain almost everything by someone’s values. Knowing someone’s values, I can tell you whether or not they will rape and steal.

Yet, when I picked up the paper, the article I read was not the story I had reported. I saw headlines that described the riots in terms solely of race. “Two Deaths Ignite Racial Clash in Tense Brooklyn Neighborhood,” the Times headline said. And, worse, I read an opening paragraph, what journalists call a “lead,” that was simply untrue: “Hasidim and blacks clashed in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn through the day and into the night yesterday.” In all my reporting during the riots I never saw — or heard of — any violence by Jews against blacks. But the Times was dedicated to this version of events: blacks and Jews clashing amid racial tensions. To show Jewish culpability in the riots, the paper even ran a picture — laughable even at the time — of a chasidic man brandishing an open umbrella before a police officer in riot gear. The caption read: “A police officer scuffling with a Hasidic man yesterday on President Street.” I was outraged but I held my tongue. I was a loyal Times employee and deferred to my editors. I figured that other reporters on the streets were witnessing parts of the story I was not seeing.

From Amazon.com: “This timely exposé reveals Erin Brockovich’s role in inciting public fear regarding the oil well at Beverly Hills High School. The author describes how Brockovich’s methods to link the oil well with cancer occurrences in former students were suspect and questions the veracity of Brockovich’s claims, using interviews with subject experts and studies done by the Air Quality Management District and others to disprove them. Focusing upon the Beverly Hills case, the author positions Brockovich as the poster child for what she terms “green porn,” sexy Madison Avenue slant thats misleads citizens, distorts scientific information, and neither informs nor educates the public.”

Email: With great and bursting praise to the Almighty, we formally announce the beginning of the New LINK Shul – an offshoot of the LINK Kollel.

Where will the shul be located? In our Kollel, 1453 Robertson – corner of Saturn and Robertson. It is a beautiful space with a backyard area, two classrooms and a gorgeous sanctuary. We are in the process of beautiful renovations as well.

When does it start? The 1st minyan begins with Shacharis on Thursday, September 1st at 6:45am. In general, Mon. and Th. mornings will be at 6:45am, Tues., Wed. and Fri. will be at 7am and Sun. at 8:15am.The 1st Shabbos minyan will begin on September 9-10th. Fri. Mincha will be 15 minutes before sundown; Shabbos mornings will start at 9am. We will have Mincha Sun. thru Th. at 2:15pm and Maariv at 9:30pm. There will also be a Mincha/ Maariv combined, beginning 15 minutes before sunset.

What are the membership costs? Free. That’s correct. We certainly welcome and need donations, but we hope b’ezras Hashem for as long as we can, to keep the membership all free.

According to Wikipedia: “Clonidine is a sympatholytic medication used to treat medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, ADHD and anxiety/panic disorder.”

According to Wikipedia: “Clonazepam is a benzodiazepine drug having anticonvulsant, muscle relaxant, and anxiolytic properties. …Clonazepam is also used for the treatment of panic disorder.”

Since I started blogging for a living in 1997, I’ve had a largely solitary life during the week so on Shabbat I often get high on socializing and end up acting and speaking inappropriately because I feel so giddy about the opportunity to mix, particularly with young women.

At a shul singles lunch in 2002, I said some inappropriate things to women and people complained. When I told this to my shrink, he suggested a low dose of lithium.

Luke Ford writes: The past couple of years, I’ve rarely spent time in a Modern Orthodox shul, but overall in the past 17 years, I’ve spent most of my shul time in Modern Orthodox shuls. I feel comfortable there.

When you look at most of the Modern Orthodox Jews I know, you wouldn’t even know they were Orthodox. Or even Jewish. They dress like everyone else.

I don’t know of any Modern Orthodox manual laborers. Almost all the Modern Orthodox Jews I know went to college and they’re doctors, lawyers, accountants and professors. They’re smart hard-working people.

Luke Ford writes: The past couple of years, I’ve rarely spent time in a Modern Orthodox shul, but overall in the past 17 years, I’ve spent most of my shul time in Modern Orthodox shuls. I feel comfortable there.

Luke Ford writes: The past couple of years, I’ve rarely spent time in a Modern Orthodox shul, but overall in the past 17 years, I’ve spent most of my shul time in Modern Orthodox shuls. I feel comfortable there.

When you look at most of the Modern Orthodox Jews I know, you wouldn’t even know they were Orthodox. Or even Jewish. They dress like everyone else.

Luke Ford writes: The past couple of years, I’ve rarely spent time in a Modern Orthodox shul, but overall in the past 17 years, I’ve spent most of my shul time in Modern Orthodox shuls. I feel comfortable there.

When you look at most of the Modern Orthodox Jews I know, you wouldn’t even know they were Orthodox. Or even Jewish. They dress like everyone else.

I don’t know of any Modern Orthodox manual laborers. Almost all the Modern Orthodox Jews I know went to college and they’re doctors, lawyers, accountants and professors. They’re smart hard-working people.

They know the wider culture. They subscribe to the New Yorker. They read fiction. They’re conversant with wider cultural trends. They’re more likely to be on friendly terms with secular Jewish scholarship and don’t necessarily regard it as the enemy to be vanquished.

Best of all in my view, the Modern Orthodox work hard. They don’t go around begging. Modern Orthodox Jews don’t interrupt the minyanim (prayer groups) of traditional Orthodox Jews (nor those of non-Orthodox Jews) and ask for money, while if you go to any Modern Orthodox minyan, there you will find the traditional Orthodox begging for handouts.

Luke Ford writes: The past couple of years, I’ve rarely spent time in a Modern Orthodox shul, but overall in the past 17 years, I’ve spent most of my shul time in Modern Orthodox shuls. I feel comfortable there.

Luke Ford writes: The past couple of years, I’ve rarely spent time in a Modern Orthodox shul, but overall in the past 17 years, I’ve spent most of my shul time in Modern Orthodox shuls. I feel comfortable there.

When you look at most of the Modern Orthodox Jews I know, you wouldn’t even know they were Orthodox. Or even Jewish. They dress like everyone else.

I don’t know of any Modern Orthodox manual laborers. Almost all the Modern Orthodox Jews I know went to college and they’re doctors, lawyers, accountants and professors. They’re smart hard-working people.

They know the wider culture. They subscribe to the New Yorker. They read fiction. They’re conversant with wider cultural trends. They’re more likely to be on friendly terms with secular Jewish scholarship and don’t necessarily regard it as the enemy to be vanquished.

Best of all in my view, the Modern Orthodox work hard. They don’t go around begging. Modern Orthodox Jews don’t interrupt the minyanim (prayer groups) of traditional Orthodox Jews (nor those of non-Orthodox Jews) and ask for money, while if you go to any Modern Orthodox minyan, there you will find the traditional Orthodox begging for handouts.

Luke Ford writes: I’ve been asking Orthodox rabbis about Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky’s two blog posts (here and here) announcing why he did not say the traditional morning blessing thanking God for not making him a woman.

One rabbi said to me: “The sad thing is the shul won’t fire him. What about the blessing thanking God for not making him a Gentile (she loasani goy) – how can the rabbi be racist?”

Another rabbi said to me:

Rabbi Kanefsky is giving an emotional response to the modern problems that women face. Women have held almost all leadership rolls in Shuls (again each Shul can decide chat positions women can hold and what they cannot hold). Women have become Toanot, Yoatzot Halachah and this list is slowly expanding by consensus of opinion. See what Rebbitzen Chana Henkin and her husband have done at Nishmat.

Luke Ford writes: I’ve been asking Orthodox rabbis about Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky’s two blog posts (here and here) announcing why he did not say the traditional morning blessing thanking God for not making him a woman.

One rabbi said to me: “The sad thing is the shul won’t fire him. What about the blessing thanking God for not making him a Gentile (she loasani goy) – how can the rabbi be racist?”

Another rabbi said to me:

Rabbi Kanefsky is giving an emotional response to the modern problems that women face. Women have held almost all leadership rolls in Shuls (again each Shul can decide chat positions women can hold and what they cannot hold). Women have become Toanot, Yoatzot Halachah and this list is slowly expanding by consensus of opinion. See what Rebbitzen Chana Henkin and her husband have done at Nishmat.

About Me

I am an Alexander Technique teacher in Beverly Hills (Alexander90210.com). I have five books available on Amazon.com. I've been blogging since 1997. I was born in Kurri Kurri, Australia, on May 28, 1966. I have lived in California since May 1977.